Commentaria in Isaiam
So Rupert, who refers this to the glory of Christ which he had after the ascension into heaven, when the Seraphim, that is the Apostles, fiery with the received Holy Spirit, proclaimed and propagated the faith and glory of Christ throughout the whole world.
The temple.—In Hebrew it is hechal, that is, Temple, the first part of the temple, namely the Holy, in which were the candlestick, the table of the loaves of proposition, and the altar of incense; for the latter part of the temple, namely the Holy of Holies, was called debir, that is oracle; in which was the ark with the propitiatory and the Cherubim. But hechal here, as elsewhere, when put alone and not distinguished from debir, signifies the whole temple, and embraces both the Holy of Holies and the Holy. Now the sense is: these fringes were so long and broad that they not only filled the Holy of Holies, in which God sat on his august throne as in the propitiatory between the Cherubim; but also spread themselves through the hechal, or the Holy, and likewise filled it; as if to say: This glory and majesty of God and of Christ filled the Church, both heavenly and triumphant (for this the Holy of Holies represented), and earthly and militant (for this the Holy represented); that is, it filled heaven and earth. Hence from this place the Church sings: “All the earth was full of his majesty.” These fringes signify, therefore, that the least of the divine majesty is greater than all the glory of men, and the whole world.
2. The seraphims stood upon it.—“Seraphim” is a Hebrew word from the root saraph, that is, he kindled, he burned. Hence “Seraphim” are called as it were burning and kindling, on account of their substance, first, most pure, and free of every stain; second, ever-wakeful; third, wonderfully excited; fourth, most agile; fifth, endowed with singular force and efficacy; sixth, shining like fire; seventh, and chiefly, on account of the ardour of charity, which is the highest good, and the happiness of man in this life; for names are imposed on Angels according to the use, sense and estimation of men in this life. And although all the foregoing are common to the other Angels, whence it is said of them, Psalm 103:4: “Who makest thy angels spirits; and thy ministers a burning fire,” yet in the Seraphim, who, nearest to God, receive immediately and most closely the illumination and ardour of the divine light and fire, they are found in a peculiar and more perfect way, as St. Dionysius teaches, On the Celestial Hierarchy, whom St. Chrysostom, homily 64 to the People, and the other Fathers follow. Beautifully St. Bernard, sermon 3 on this vision of Isaias: “Why, thou Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning, didst thou not stand in the truth, unless because thou wast not a Seraph? For Seraphim is interpreted burning or kindling. Thou hadst indeed light, but thou hadst not ardour. It would have been good for thee to be a fire-bearer rather than a light-bearer, nor then, by immoderate desire of shining, being cold thyself, wouldst thou choose a cold region. Thou saidst:
I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will sit in the sides of the north.”
Morally, “Seraphim” signifies that those who wish to be like Isaias, that is Prophets and preachers of God, ought to burn with charity. So St. Seraphia, virgin and martyr, who in name and in fact imitated and rivalled the Seraphim, kindled with the love of Christ, overcame both fires, the carnal, namely of Venus, and of Vulcan; and finally kindled many others, and especially St. Sabina, and incited her to the same laurel of martyrdom, whose birthday the Church keeps on 4 September, so that the Christian Poet rightly sings of her:
Seraphia bore unhurt the burning torches, who had borne unviolated the Cyprian fires.
Such a preacher was Elias, of whom Ecclesiasticus 48:1:
“it sounds in word, it burns with desire. Brass glowing, therefore, is preaching kindled; but from glowing brass sparks proceed; because from their exhortations flaming words proceed to the ears of the hearers, which inflame those whom they touch in the heart.” Wherefore our Alcazar understands literally by the two Seraphim Peter and Paul, and apostolic men, of which verse 6.
They stood upon it,—namely the throne; “they stood” (beside or around the throne), namely upon the foot or pavement of the throne; for it was fitting that they be on a lower step than the seat and throne of God himself. So we see kings sit on a high throne, and the princes attend below.
“Elias the prophet stood up as a fire, and his word burned as a torch”; hence he was taken up in a fiery chariot into heaven. Such a preacher was St. Basil, whom St. Ephrem, absent, saw as a pillar of fire, and, present, saw a fiery tongue speaking from his mouth, as St. Amphilochius testifies in the Life of St. Basil. Such a preacher was St. Francis, of whom St. Bonaventure, chap. 12 of his Life: “His word was,” he says, “like a burning fire, penetrating the inmost parts of the heart, and filled the minds of all with wonder; since it smelt not of the ornament of human invention but of the breath of divine revelation.” Then he narrates an example, that when before the Pontiff and Cardinals he was about to preach and had composed a sermon, he forgot it all; whereupon betaking himself to prayer, “he began suddenly to flow with such effective words, and so powerfully to bend the minds of those exalted men to compunction, that it plainly appeared that not he but the Spirit of the Lord was speaking; for he preached the truth most confidently; he knew not how to flatter the faults of any, but to prick them;
Note: These Seraphim surround the throne like the Cherubim surrounding the propitiatory, Exodus 25. Indeed our Prado in the place already cited thinks these Seraphim of Isaias are the same as the Cherubim of Moses and Ezechiel; but it is truer that they are different. Hence the Church distinguishes among the nine choirs of Angels the order of the Seraphim, and places it before the order of the Cherubim as highest. For the order of the Seraphim is not named elsewhere in Scripture than here. Moreover, since Moses and Ezechiel saw Cherubim, and Isaias Seraphim, the reason is that the chariot of the Cherubim, which Moses and Ezechiel saw, was a symbol both of divine wisdom and providence, by which he himself rules the world, and chiefly the Church and the Synagogue; and of divine battle and victory, which subdued and crushed Pharaoh and other enemies of his people; but Isaias saw Seraphim, because by that fire he was to be purged of phlegm and timidity, and to be kindled and inflamed with divine fire, as is plain from verse 7.
Beautifully St. Bernard, sermon 3 on this vision, notes that to sit belongs to God, to stand to the Angels, and that Lucifer fell because he said: “I will sit in the sides of the north.”
nor to foster the life of sinners but to strike it with harsh rebuke. With the same constancy of mind he spoke to the great, “The Seraphim,” he says, “stand plainly, because charity never falleth away. They stand astonished, and stand and to the small, and with the same cheerfulness of spirit spoke to few and to many” (let preachers note who lessen their spirit and zeal when the audience is lessened); “every age and every sex hastened to behold and hear the new man given to the world from heaven; and he, going forth through divers regions, preached the gospel confidently, the Lord working with him and confirming the word with signs following.” Such not only a preacher but also a Doctor was St. Bonaventure himself, who in his books, even the scholastic ones, inflames the hearer to piety as he enlightens with wisdom: wherefore he is rightly called the Seraphic Doctor. Let scholastic doctors imitate him; especially Religious, that they may show themselves as religious as they are learned. Similarly Ezechiel, chapters 1, 4 and 7, saw Cherubim standing … “like the appearance of glowing brass.” Which St. Gregory, explaining mystically, homily 3 on Ezechiel: “The force,” he says, “of preachers both sounds and burns;
suspended in contemplation of him who sits on the throne; they stand in eternal immutability and everlasting incommutability. Thou (Lucifer) didst attempt to sit, O impious one! therefore thy feet were moved, and thy steps poured out. It is the Son who sits on the throne, the Lord of Sabaoth, judging all things with tranquillity. The Trinity alone sits, which alone has immutability; the Seraphim, however, stand.”
Six wings to the one, and six wings to the other.—Hence it is plain that this vision was not real but imaginary and symbolic; for Seraphim have not wings with which they truly and really fly; hence also the flight of one Seraph to Isaias, and the touching of his lips, was not real but imaginary.
Note first: Seraphim are symbolically feigned and painted with wings, to signify that they are of a heavenly nature, flying out to God, and going to and fro most swiftly anywhere.
Second, each of them had not twelve wings, as some suppose, but only six, as is plain from what follows: for “with two they flew.” For “six wings to the one, and six wings to the other” does not signify that one had twice six, that is twelve wings; it is a Hebraism, signifying that each had six wings, as our version and the Chaldee translate.